Of the many feats that Max Verstappen, leader of the Formula 1 World Championship, has behind him, the one experienced at the Miami GP must be on the podium of the most unlikely. The Dutchman did not care if he started from ninth position, mounted the hard starting tire or that his greatest rival, his teammate Sergio Checo Pérez, had pole position. At a dizzying pace, he was able to overtake any rival that came his way to star in one of the greatest comebacks in history. And he had nine laps to spare, when he gave an account of a Pérez who was betrayed by the hard tires after a great first part of the race. The World Cup leader is more of a leader, and when he looks back in a few years, he will remember Miami 2023 as one of the great exhibitions of his career.
Behind the Red Bulls, unreachable to the rest, lived Fernando Alonso, who achieved his fourth podium of the season thanks to the fantastic pace of his Aston Martin and great management of the medium tire in the first part of the race. He waited until lap 25 to put in the hard ones, which was key to getting ahead of Carlos Sainz, with whom he was competing for the podium at that time. The Oviedo race was relatively calm. He only had to extend the life of the middle wheels and when he had to get down into the mud, to overtake Sainz on the track, he did it with great solvency. In the last few laps George Russell tried to close in on him in a reborn Mercedes, but Alonso had the pace to keep him at bay. For his part, Carlos Sainz was only able to be fifth after suffering a 5-second penalty for exceeding the speed limit of 80k/h in the pits.
As if Verstappen's task was not complex enough, at the start Valtteri Bottas managed to snatch the position from him. One more to overtake the Dutchman must have thought. From that tenth position to second he needed only fifteen of the 57 laps that the Grand Prix lasted. In the first two laps he realized Ocon and Bottas. In the fourth he signed what is possibly the most spectacular overtaking of the year. In one stroke he surpassed Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas). The next stop was George Russell, whom he overtook as if the Mercedes belonged to one less competition.
On lap nine he was already fifth. Ahead, Sainz, Alonso and a Pérez who was not able to detach himself from the Asturian. Despite being submerged in all this traffic, the Dutchman was only losing five seconds at the time to his teammate. Three laps later he was already stalking Carlos Sainz, whom he overtook on lap 14. Alonso was not a problem either. Fifteen laps and a deficit of 3.7 seconds with Pérez. Not even in his best dreams.
A new battle began, that of surpassing his partner. Fast lap after fast lap, Verstappen came close on hard tyres, they would inexplicably last 46 laps. Faced with this superiority, the Mexican entered the pits to push hard and try to improve his times. But something was not right, he never managed to go faster than the world leader, with much more worn tires.
Verstappen extended his stop as long as he could and only came out a second behind Pérez, whom he knocked out on the following lap, in lap 56. The Mexican's graining problems (tire wear) prevented him from competing head-to-head in This time.
Behind, Alonso lived a career that he himself described as lonely. “The car is incredible. The run has been pretty lonely. We expected stronger opponents, but the Ferraris have fared worse than expected”, assured the Spaniard, who looks to the future with great optimism. “At the beginning of the season a podium was incredible, but now we want something more. Even so, the Red Bulls are incredible, they are unbreakable. Perhaps in Monaco or Barcelona we will have a little more ”, he slipped. The Asturian's numbers are fantastic and he only has to take that step that will bring him closer to the, for now, dominators of the category.
After the Spaniard, the Mercedes and the Ferraris appeared. The first ones improved their performance in the race with respect to the classification. Especially Hamilton, who recovered seven positions. Russell also performed at a high level and was able to surpass Carlos Sainz, who at some point dreamed of the podium. The man from Madrid went from more to less. When he was closer to Alonso, he came to try an undercat, he made a mistake that cost him 5 seconds and from there he lost rhythm. At his low top speed he added too much tire degradation. Leclerc, for his part, saved a seventh place that was in doubt at many times due to the push of Alpine de Gasly.
For the trident of Italy, Monaco and Barcelona, at the end of May, all will bring improvements. The objective for almost everyone is to reduce the advantage with a Red Bull that is still light years behind the rest
